Gertie Gallops Again

[Music] foreign [Music] this month marks the 50th anniversary of the collapse of galloping gertie the very first bridge across the tacoma narrows over the next half hour we'll discover how gertie changed the future of bridge engineering [Music] we'll see dramatic footage of her collapse and journey underwater to see why a local diver wants to protect her resting grounds by placing her on the register of historic places i'm your host lane ficke and i invite you to join us as we explore this fascinating piece of tacoma's history prior to the narrows bridge construction the only means of transportation from tacoma to gig harbor was by ferry in 1928 the tacoma chamber of commerce conducted a feasibility survey to determine whether a bridge should be built the favorable results prompted the committee to obtain a toll bridge franchise from the state it became obvious though that pierce county would have difficulty gathering the necessary funding for the project at the local level even in the early years of the depression financial pressures were starting to hit home after some creative attempts by individuals to acquire federal monies for the project the state's department of transportation proposal was finally approved by the newly established public works administration but the pwa did not accept the application without changes [Music] when construction of the bridge across the narrows finally began it had a much lower budget and a totally different design than was recommended by the state of washington's bridge engineering staff the state had not planned on the kind of a bridge that gerdy was the state had asked for open trust work 25 feet deep that the wind could blow through and the i think the wpa money they said they didn't want to put that kind of money out you'll have to have some more consulting engineers drop a different plan so one of the foremost bridge engineers supposedly in the united states drew up this plant with eight foot girders and we know what happened the original design plan submitted by clark eldridge a bridge engineer with the department of highways had an estimated cost of 11 million dollars federal government's public works administration required alterations to the original designs when they were persuaded by east coast bridge engineers that it could be built for much less a well-known suspension bridge builder leon mosef was hired to redesign the bridge and drastic modifications were made so it could be built within its appropriate seven million dollar budget eldridge remained as the project engineer and just prior to the bid opening date contractors complained that they wouldn't be able to build the substructure the foundational peers according to the revised designs so eldridge showed them his original plans and they agreed to build those now according to eldridge the substructure was built without any major complications despite the fact that the plans and building conditions were said to be as difficult as those of the golden gate bridge that was one of the smoothest running jobs for its size and all the different facets that had to be taken care of of any job i was ever on the first anchors that came out were i think they had dumped one or two on the site that was really something you know the first time you saw it really was a science it was just done big terrific far uh flop when that scout took and it was up well there was very little skull in the water just the corner itself and it went over the piers were to be held in place by 24 anchors each weighing 550 tons they were first attached temporarily to rigging scouts and then reattached permanently to the piers with today's technology we can scarcely imagine the challenges that face the divers responsible for this important phase of the bridge construction the narrows is a difficult dive due to the tidal exchange which moves rapidly in and out through the narrow channel added to this is the prevailing darkness of the deep waters at that time there were no underwater lights and the divers did much of their work by feel on my shift they worked in total darkness on a lot of that diving there is one time that i had tried 300 watt lights and i had real heavy cord and i used three rows of that rubber tape that went up on the cord and down on the where the globe starts to get large and put three rolls of tape on that it lasted about three dives but they said that the only thing it did for him was the white spot to come back to they couldn't see they'd never helped it with it the crew building the narrows bridge used many new and creative techniques a prime example was when they ran into difficulty fitting one of the eight foot girders in place [Music] they had worked three different days trying to get that in and using the at night you know that cooled everything down so they thought they could put it in they couldn't do it and finally andy zory one of their superintendents told the fellows that were above him if you had your way if you'll give me my way now i'll put it in they didn't know what he was planning on but he said sure okay go ahead it's yours so he ordered a lot of dry ice and packed that in dry ice the whole bit there and set overnight and red said in the morning it went in there just like butter on bread [Music] despite a variety of hazardous conditions facing the workers the only fatal incident which occurred was one which many felt should not have ended in death i believe it was a carpenter i think his name was wild he only fell he didn't fall he rolled down a three to one slam and it should not have been a fatal accident but killed him 12 feet is all he went that was the only life lost on that bridge to my knowledge the superstructure designed by mosef did not however go as smoothly as the construction of the piers as the floor forms were laid the bridge began to experience severe oscillations now at the same time the white stone bridge in new york also designed by mosef was reporting similar movement the board of consultants for the project and the director of highways contacted the designer with their concerns about continuing the construction the bridge was after all more slender and of a lighter construction than the white stone mozaf assured them that a simple means had been developed to lessen the unstable movement of the white stone and that the process could easily be applied to the narrows bridge if necessary although the dampeners were later applied the unusual movement of the bridge continued despite its peculiar tendencies the long-awaited bridge was opened during a gala celebration during which the acting commissioner of public works colonel e w clark extolled the commercial and environmental attractions of the tacoma area once the official ceremony was concluded the first traffic eagerly crossed the newest of the area's attractions the narrows bridge opened on july 1 1940 and soon earned the name galloping gertie because of its peculiar wave-like motion and high winds the bridge became a local tourist site and soon visitors from all around the area paid their toll to ride the roller coaster none of those who ventured across gertie as she thrilled them with a whirlwind ride suspected the fate which awaited her nobody even thought about it being unsafe it was an odd sensation you'd be when it was the wind was blowing and the wave or the galloping would start you'd be driving along and be a car 40 or 50 yards ahead of you and it would disappear in the in the valley of the waves and then when you come back up on the crest you'd see the car again and it was a very weird sensation going across realizing the unique proportions of the bridge authorities appropriated twenty thousand dollars for a study by professor farkasan of the university of washington his simulated wind tests put a scale model of the bridge under a series of stress tests by duplicating all of the known modes of undulation the bridge experienced however on november 7th 1940 the movement changed it went from a simple up and down wave-like motion to one of severe twisting what followed is best recounted by howard clifford one of if not the last person to fight his way off the writhing bridge i was working for the trivia at the time and leonard coatsworth was a editor on our copy desk and he had a summer place over at arletta that we used to visit most of the staff would come over on weekends and such as that he was going over to close it up for the summer at the time and he was trying to drive across the bridge which he'd crossed a lot of times before when it had the wave in it but this time it was more severe and he couldn't make it so he when he couldn't get out or across the bridge he went back to the toro plaza made his way back there leaving his car on the bridge and called the city desk and told us he thought the bridge was going to fall down i didn't know whether the bridge was going to fall or not i'd crossed it a lot of times when it had just the straight wave but this time it was also twisting and it was a different reaction so we didn't go out initially just watched it for a while and i photographed it from different angles and there was another photographer jim bashford was out there and then barney elliot of the camera shop was out taking movies and we'd shoot on and off for the period we were out there and then finally it seemed to calm down a little bit so bert and i thought maybe we could go out to the car and get the dog out of it and that was why we were out there on the bridge at the time and it was just then that while we were between the east tower and the shore that the center section of the bridge dropped out what went through my mind i thought well the east section is probably going to go too and to get off there just as fast as i could with the weight from the center section gone the cables were almost like rubber bands that seemed to be snapping up and down and the center section the roadway would drop out from underneath me and i'd be running in the air for a while and then it would come up and smack me on the feet and knock me down or to my knees or i'd hit the camera on the pavement so it was kind of a stutter step all the way back there was a sound that sounded like rifle shots i didn't know at the time and then as i saw more of them it was it was the cables from the main cable suspension cable down to the bridge and they were snapping and breaking and it sounded like a whip cracking i thought it was rifle shots or something and first it was just one or two and then it was almost like a machine gun gertie's collapse came as a shock to almost everyone but few were as surprised as hallett french an agent with the merchant's fire association french was authorized to issue insurance policy without prior approval from the main office on the east coast french not only issued the policy without prior approval but opted not to report the policy to the company at all pocketing the premium payments himself after all what short of natural disaster could destroy a brand new six million dollar bridge french got a harsh answer to that question when he was convicted of grand larceny and sentenced to 15 years in prison he served only two years of his sentence after being paroled for good behavior interestingly the department of transportation was considering dropping some of its insurance on the bridge at the time there were 22 companies providing coverage gertie had become so popular though that she was drawing far more in tolls than anyone had ever anticipated this increase in revenue had reduced the need for financial protection had gertie's fall occurred just two or three weeks later french might never have been caught and none would be the wiser as the case would have it his authorization to act independently left his employer responsible to cover the loss on their eight hundred thousand dollar policy french was not the only one read in the face over gertie's fall one of the savings alone institutions here in town i won't mention the name because they're kind of embarrassed about had a big billboard out by the bridge advertising the savings alone said it was as safe as the narrows bridge we would watch that i was going to photograph it on the way back and they papered over it before the bridge went down a good many people learned valuable lessons through gertie's demise perhaps the single greatest is one that continues to be taught worldwide to aspiring bridge architects what finally brought gertie down was a phenomenon known as vortex shedding simply stated it's a principle of aerodynamics that says when the wind is interrupted by an object in this case the solid bridge sidewalls eddies are formed which can cause vibration in the object in his effort to reduce cost of the building of the narrows bridge mosef had substituted flat plate sidewalls in place of the open trusses recommended in the original design submitted by the state these sidewalls in combination with the flutter of the bridge deck produced the violent twisting oscillation which caused the bridge to fall surprisingly monero's bridge as she stands today looks much like clark eldridge's original designs although it was expanded from two lanes to four while the tale of gertie ander collapsed was a dramatic one it's not the conclusion to her story although it was an unfortunate event in tacoma's history the collapse of gertie may have been beneficial in at least one way aside from the obvious fact that the new bridge was expanded to four lanes gertie is also serving a different purpose far beneath the narrows there is a new population utilizing the expansive steel structure today in fact just as the bridge was instrumental in the growth and development of gig harbor gertie is now the foundation for underwater life in the narrows playing a vital role in an ecosystem which has been built upon her you see a little representative of almost all the sea life that's common in southern sound right here on the bridge we've got the mated pairs of woolfield the bright gray and the rust colored females they get pretty large we've got the octopus the largest octopus in the world of right below us we've got everything from the convict or the bottlenose sculpins to the black bass your truecod cabazons rays and even mammals habitat here the stellar sea lions normal sea lions they're seen in the area we've even on dives to 140 feet seen some birds down swimming and gathering their feasts for the day tremendous amount of sea life that's supported here it's a whole little ecosystem in the old span just as gertie attracted people to the narrows she is now drawing underwater inhabitants to an area previously void of this level of life the floor of the narrows is comprised mostly of small rocks and pea gravel nothing large enough for barnacles to attach to or to guard smaller fish from the torrid currents of the area then along came gertie she became home to many species of underwater life providing a fortress for some to hide within and an anchor for others to attach to though she was torn down by the winds above the water the swift tidal exchanges have not been strong enough to force her from her resting place little by little though electrolysis is eroding away at the structure but a strong barnacle reef has formed on her and the greatest threat facing gertie today is neither the wind nor the tides but rather man as recycling processes get a little more fine-tuned someone may decide that the massive amount of tons of steel here is worth salvaging it would be a real shame because it the old bridge though it's never traveled anymore has economic value to the state of washington as well as the obvious historic value it it spawns a whole marine ecosystem that is thriving in such degrees that you never would have seen that had the old bridge not been here so it would be a really a shame for somebody to pull it all up the the years they've been developing the coral reef that's building here shouldn't be disturbed and i'd like to see it left alone as a professional diver and sport fisherman mester has made many visits to the depths of the narrows it's because of what he's seen and experienced there that he's seeking to once again bring recognition to gertie on this her 50th anniversary the recognition to the general public that first of all this is a historical site it is an economic value to the state of washington and it is a marine ecosystem i think are probably the three important factors that that will make this a very easy entry into the state register once the state register is accomplished i'd like to see it entered into the national register of historical places i mean you've heard of london bridges falling down this one really did fall down though gertie's qualifications and contributions are clear whose jurisdiction she lies in and the type of protection she will receive are not i don't think there's any question about the eligibility of the ruins of galloping gertie as far as a historic place it is arguably the most dramatic and uh violent event in american engineering history is the destruction of of gallup and gertie and for that reason alone the bridge would be remarkable as evidence of that event beyond that the fact that it is just now achieving the 50 years in age criteria makes it important that we act now and really up until now the bridge would not have been old enough to to qualify for landmark status and hence the the um instigation of landmark designation in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the bridges collapse currently the city of tacoma offers the greatest protection by far the most sophisticated and the most protective legislation available for the bridge is the city of tacoma's legislation and what we intend to do is to investigate thoroughly landmarking the bridge as a tacoma historic place some difficult problems come up in doing that one being that the city limits and the jurisdiction of of the city's laws only go as far as mid-channel and so only half the bridge and the eastern pier would be within the city limits of tacoma and so only that part of it would be protected by our laws the other issue is one of enforcement and needless to say the preservation of a historic site that is 80 or 100 feet under water is not a foreseen situation it certainly wasn't foreseen when we drafted our our legislation and so adapting that legislation finding a way to apply it to the unique circumstances of of the ruins of galloping gertie is something that we're wrestling with right now certainly no one would be able to patrol the waters to protect the remains of the bridge but placing it on the city's register of historic places would ensure that a salvage company would not simply be able to claim what is left of the bridge for personal gain in terms of being able to assert those laws i think it would be relatively easy to assert those laws in the case of large commercial salvage operations but individually being able to have the laws work for individual divers is going to be a much more unpredictable thing without the reef formed around gertie's remains there would be nothing to attract the habitat which makes this a favorite fishing site and while dangerous one of the most exciting diving areas on the west coast when we drop down on the bridge and our lights first glance upon the bridge the first thing we see is what looks to be a skeletal remains and in essence that is it's the skeletal remains of the old galloping gertie it's encrusted with barnacles and anemones and mollusks and muscles and it has kind of an eerie feeling but over the years myself and my very very close-knit team of divers have have come to really enjoy and get an affiliation with this bridge it kind of brings a warm feeling this is a unique place it's not something everybody can get to it's the busy humdrum above it it's never realized really what kind of beauty there is below so we hit our goal each time we make it as long as we make it back to the surface gertie's collapse was indeed a traumatic moment for our community but as with many of the most devastating situations significant insight and benefits were gained as a result of gertie's collapse from advances in bridge engineering to her contributions to underwater habitat 50 years later despite her fall she is still serving us [Music] do [Music] november 7 1940 when the bridge that had only been up for four months collapsed gritty was the third longest suspension bridge in the world and its collapse ranks as the worst bridge failure in history but not all of its history lies in books 30 to 260 feet below the bridge lies most of gallup and girding and joining us today is bob mester he's a professional diver in the area and you have a cause for this i know you've made about 30 dives down there what exactly is down there and why why do you want to save it actually it's about 300 dives and the reason we want to save it is it has some historical impact of the state of washington ecological benefit and some um commercial benefit okay and i understand that that you said parts of it looked like people were taking some of it there is a um it looks like efforts for some salvers to start removing parts of the the bridge for salvage and scrap okay well let's look at your video and explain exactly what this is there's you obviously it looks like barnacles to me but i know that okay what we're looking at is actually the skeletal remains of the original galloping gertie and some of the metal structure is all covered by barnacles and vertebrates as you can see there's a tremendous amount of lingcod and and bottom life which makes the narrows area really really valuable to sport fisherman's into the ecosystem for washington state notice the the scope in there blending in with the bottom next to one of the girders on the bridge that one time supported automobiles now i know you were talking about also maybe making it a national scuba place i've been told that it's real treacherous there you have to be a good diver there are actually all degrees of diving in the tacoma narrows area where there is bridge rubble the area we're diving here is not for sport divers it's a little bit more difficult is it is it cold down there well the temperature is is pretty constant at about 47 degrees it's anything but quiet we hear the trains going by the bridge the traffic and and of course sea life now um i was going to ask you too being down there and you said you've done it like 300 times over 300 times on the tacoma do you see anything different when you go down there each and every time um i saw a hubcap under one of those right well we've seen a nuclear submarine various very large octopus which shaku still has studied the octopus at the tacoma narrows mating woolfields just it's a wide variety it's a whole little ecosystem in itself okay now what do you have to do to get it on the list well in order to get it uh validated to the state's register of historical places it has to have historical significance and being the third largest span bridge in in the world at the time and it failing does give significance historically and once it's applied to the state list of historical places it has um a precedence to be entered into the national historical register how long does that all take it's really not a long process uh the fact is there's there's no one who's against this action so i i believe by the first of the year it will be deemed a historical site for the state it would be too bad you can't do it for an event what is that that's that's a wool feel it is ugly and they do look very ominous but they're pretty timid and uh just want to be left alone down among the bridge nothing down there that's very dangerous nothing really i had a run in with a 74 pound lingcod a female that did a little job on my hand but basically everything is pretty friendly and just wants to live and reproduce now i understand you're going down there tomorrow too we'll be finishing up the last sequence of a filming segment for a documentary done by municipal tv on the bridge so we'll be out there tomorrow morning at slacktide great and we'll be out there and hopefully get some more of your great video great okay thanks for joining us and we also wanted to mention as bob did the tacoma city cable channel 12 is planning a half hour documentary on galloping gertie and that will start november 1st on cityscape thanks a lot thank you well is you

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Id: 3I6eW1TX5yE

Length: 28min 38sec (1718 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 23 2020